


survival

by Rethira



Category: Mugen no Juunin | Blade of the Immortal, Naruto
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 11:10:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16831453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rethira/pseuds/Rethira
Summary: have they forgotten? only the strong survive





	survival

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this AGES ago for the prompt: _THIS IS SILLY BUT DEFECTED, FORMER HUNTER NIN MAKIE. bonus points: chakra dead tai, anotsu with a bloodline trait distinctive to the village he renounced_

(makie is from kiri. she is in the same class as her brother. at graduation, he comes swaggering over to her. he challenges her to a fight. she does not think he means to kill her

but makie thinks, _has he forgotten? only the strong survive_

makie’s brother is the first to die in that bloody arena. her father never forgives her for it)

When she was young, Makie met a boy. He was afraid, cowering away from a large dog. So Makie had stepped in and killed it; turning, her eyes had met Anotsu Kagehisa’s for the first time.

His grandfather had been furious. She did not know why. He had beaten them both, dragged Anotsu away. He’d left her to die. He’d expected her to be eaten. But Makie-

(within a year she would kill her brother, but makie didn’t know that, then)

She walked away alive. She would meet Anotsu again.

* * *

Her father tells Makie to become merely another kunoichi. To be like the other genin and chuunin her age. Already they call her _kinslayer._ It is too much to stand out. Simply exist.

Her sensei suggests ANBU. Not the Mizukage’s guards; no-one will trust a kinslayer to guard the Mizukage. But they cannot deny Makie’s talent. They cannot deny her skill.

_Kinslayer, kinslayer_ , Makie hears, and her father still says, “Your brother should have lived instead of you,” so Makie takes up the mask of hunter-nin instead. Let them fear her. It will set her free.

Her father casts her out for it. He will have nothing more to do with her. Otono-Tachibana Makie no longer exists in his eyes. Makie does not regret this. She had not existed in his eyes since she cut her brother down.

They _do_ fear her. She brings back the heads of missing-nin in bundles. When she collects her bounties, the chuunin always look sick to see her. They murmur _kinslayer, friend-killer_ , ask- when will she turn on us?

(have they forgotten? only the strong survive)

Civilians flinch from Makie in the street. She works alone out of preference, but when forced to work with a team the others… grimace. They think she will run them through to reach her target.

Makie is feared. Makie is hated.

And then-

Anotsu Kagehisa appears before her.

* * *

(he is grown. taller now than she is. he carries himself differently than when she last saw him. more… confidently. he wears neither the hitai-ate of an affiliated ninja, nor the scratched one of a missing nin. the man at his side has so little chakra he must be a civilian - a guide?)

“There,” says one of her companions, “they say he defected from Kumo. Hefty price on his head. A missing-nin’s a missing-nin, huh?” The man smirks. “Even with a kekkei genkai.”

But Anotsu Kagehisa looks like no missing-nin Makie has ever seen before.

Her companions nod to each other, and drop down. Anotsu Kagehisa… smiles.

His companion sighs and grumbles. He wanders off the path, and hops onto a fallen tree, where he takes a pipe out of his sleeve, rolls down his mask a little, and starts smoking.

He does not believe Anotsu Kagehisa will lose.

Makie’s companions start to attack. They do not hit. “Eyes!” the man shouts; Anotsu swings his axe, and the man’s sword shatters under the blow.

Does she remember if Anotsu had a dōjutsu all those years ago? No. But there had been something about Anotsu’s eyes then, that had entranced her. It.. is possible. And even a person with a dōjutsu can be momentarily blinded.

Even Anotsu Kagehisa can be defeated.

He does not seem surprised when she lands before him. His smile widens. He is not the same boy who was frightened of a dog, scared of his grandfather - but Makie is not the same as she was then either.

“Otono-Tachibana Makie,” Anotsu Kagehisa says, “I do not know if I can defeat you.”

Her companions take heart in that, but… Makie hears something else in his words.

Makie says nothing. She aims for his eyes, and he lets her.

(he _lets_ her- makie knows, in that instant. it is not his eyes. he does not have a dōjutsu)

With the movement of her blade, her teammates have moved as well - Anotsu is blinded, they think. Blood in his eyes. But he swings that axe, and- an arm falls here, a leg cleaved to bone there, before Makie can shout a warning.

Anotsu Kagehisa smiles. Blood drips into his eyes, but he is looking at her unerringly. “It was their mistake. I have never claimed to have a dōjutsu.” He moves to stand in a ready stance. “So, Otono-Tachibana Makie. Shall we?”

But Makie looks between him and the- the men on the ground. She does not even know their names. Only the strong survive. They were not strong. Perhaps she could take Anotsu Kagehisa’s head, but… for what?

Makie shakes her head. She lowers her weapon. Her- the men she is betraying stare at her, horrified.

“Anotsu Kagehisa,” she says. “I… I will come with you.”

Off to the side, Anotsu’s companion laughs. “I hate it when you’re right.”

Anotsu, still bleeding, smiles at her. “I’m glad. I came all this way to see you.”

Makie leaves her mask on the roadside. She does not look back.

**Author's Note:**

> (+ [notes](http://kratosaurioned.tumblr.com/post/153378341105/big-ass-notes-post-for-naruto-x-boti-au-anotsus) and [even more notes](http://kratosaurioned.tumblr.com/post/153386226905/more-naruto-x-boti-notes-mostly-from-a))


End file.
